Software Freedom Day 2K18 - Event Report
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu,
FSFTN celebrated Software Freedom Day 2K18 the previous Sunday (23.9.2018). The event was a great success in terms of number of Stalls, new contacts gained and valuable discussions that we had. Below is the summary of the event.
The event started by 8.30AM where our volunteers gathered at Madras School of Social Work, Egmore to make arrangements for the event. The majority of the volunteers was from Chennai GLUG. We had the registration desk set up by 9.30AM. The people who were to put up stalls were at the venue by 9.30AM and were assembled at their respective stalls.
At 10AM we had the Inaugural Ceremony where we had Anandamoorthy (FSFTN) explaining about the need for Software Freedom Day and gave away the instructions for the participants of the day. There were nearly 20 stalls put up for the day. Below is the list,
Stalls List :-
- FOSS Philosophy
- WikiSource
- Wikipedia
- Shell - Bash, Zsh, etc
- Machine Learning
- Kaniyam & Tamil Computing
- Privacy Tools in Browser
- Designing in FOSS
- Scratch for Kids
- Libre Office
- OpenStreetMap
- Community Networks
- BlueDot (Project Demo)
- Libre Digital Library
- Olipedia
- Gaming in FOSS
- Tamil Computing
- RISC-V Architecture
- Activity Pub
- Stellarium
Viewers from various domains came to the Venue. We had stall demonstrations till 11.30AM and had tea for the Volunteers. We had a brief discussion on current situation in FOSS, Contribution to FOSS and common misconceptions which was handled by Deva (FSFTN) and Shrinivasan (Kaniyam). We left for Lunch by 1PM. We had a nice tasty Mushroom Briyani assisted by Token system.
The stalls resumed after Lunch. There were certain stalls which includes some Activity for the Viewers such as "Pick as Task" and "Treasure Hunt". These were prepared on spot by the volunteers. We had put up a stall in the last to talk about the Tech Synergy Camp 2K18 and also seeking for Donations for FSFTN. We got around 2.2K as donation on the day and 10.2K in total for FSFTN.
The celebration ended with the Closing Ceremony with Mr.Vijayan (Activist) as the Chief Guest and Deva, Shrinivasan giving speeches for the day. The volunteers shared their experiences and feedback at the end.
Overall, It was a great day with 20 Stalls, 40 Volunteers and 80 Viewers for SFD in Chennai. This event would not be possible without the effort of the volunteers of FSFTN. Thanks to all the volunteers who are involved for the event and also for the Financial Contributors who made this event happen. Also, special thanks to the Venue Sponsors Madras School of Social Work who were awesome and the Venue was good for the celebration
This was just a beginning and we as an organization, as a movement need to carry over from these contacts, responses, technologies and collectively bring everyone together and build a stronger FOSS Movement.
The pictures of the Event can be found here - https://www.flickr.com/gp/fsftn/70594u
Let's Celebrate FOSS throughout the Year :-)
Update: Software Freedom Day was also celebrated at Pondicherry by Free Software Hardware Movement Puducherry (a.k.a. PuduvaiGLUG) on the same date and you can find their report here.